Your Pal. Your Tonic.
Paltonic is a privacy-first dating and companionship app built for the ace-spectrum community (asexual, grey-ace, demisexual), with an opt-in lane for allosexual people who are comfortable with ace-first dating norms. The goal is to create a calm, consent-forward space where intentions, boundaries, and pacing are explicit from the start—without the pressure, fetishization, or “swipe casino” mechanics that make mainstream dating apps unsafe or exhausting for ace users.
At its core, Paltonic prioritizes context over impulse. Profiles emphasize compatibility and boundaries before quick decisions, and users control what they disclose and when. The app is intentionally designed to respect privacy and reduce coercion, while still helping people find meaningful romantic or platonic connections.
Project status: Paltonic is in early development and not yet open source. This repository exists to share the public vision, design intent, and high-level roadmap without exposing the codebase. Once the core framework is complete and licensing is finalized, the project will transition to open-source development.
- Context-first discovery: No addictive swipe loop. Users scroll through profiles that foreground intent, pace, and compatibility.
- Consent-forward by default: “Prefer not to say” is always available, and users can control who sees sensitive fields (public, matches-only, or hidden).
- Ace-first norms: Allosexual users can join only by explicitly opting into ace-first expectations. Ace users can filter out allo users entirely.
- Safety without hard gates: Paltonic uses a progressive trust model. Email verification unlocks full browsing, matching, and replying. Phone verification is optional and only required to initiate the first message—adding a “Verified” badge and subtle discovery boost for users who opt in.
Safety tooling is built in from the beginning: one-tap report and block, categorized reporting, and automated moderation rules (shadowbans or suspensions when abuse thresholds are hit). This keeps the experience respectful while avoiding harsh barriers that can harm adoption in a small community.
- Onboarding questions for intent, pace, boundaries, and compatibility
- Profile cards with prompts, interests, and compatibility highlights
- Discovery feed with connect / pass / save actions
- Matching and messaging between connections
- Long-distance mode to reduce empty-state for a small community
- Safety center with reporting and block tools
- Refine the compatibility model based on early feedback
- Expand long-distance and region support
- Strengthen moderation tooling and reviewer workflows
- Open-source the core framework once licensing is finalized
- Backend: Python, Django
- Frontend: HTML, JavaScript, htmx
- Styling: Tailwind CSS
- Database: PostgreSQL (with PostGIS)
- Infra: Docker (single VPS deployment via Docker Compose)
- Tooling: uv, ruff, mypy, pytest, Playwright
For feedback, collaboration, or early reviewer access, open an issue in this repository.